


All Gone (No Escape)

by ponytaileddope (orphan_account)



Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Gen, Graphic Violence, I wrote this because I promised my good friend I would do it, I'll add more characters as this goes, I'm half concussed and a mess so bear with me, If this goes that is, Minor Character Death, Plot-heavy, Zombie AU, world-building
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2021-02-08 00:28:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21467041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/ponytaileddope
Summary: An infection takes down 80% of the world's population, turning those infected in feral, fast and deadly creatures. The story takes place nine months after the outbreak, when Andrade and Zelina, former workmates and friends, barely survive trying to make their way out of the United States and into Mexico, where it's said a whole new future awaits for humanity.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 6





	1. Mistakes

"You know…", munching sound, "the best thing…", munch munch, "about SoCal?", she said, looking at her burrito like it was her whole world. She then took another bite at it and looked at her partner again. "The food. Gosh, these people sure knew how to cook", more munching sounds.

Her comment was met with silence as her friend kept searching for something inside his backpack. He gave up a few seconds later with a sigh of resignation. She pointed another burrito at him only to have it denied. 

"Andrade, you have to eat something. It's been almost two days since you had a proper meal.", Zelina insisted, but Andrade wouldn't even spare a glance to her. 

He just kept pouting.

Zelina then took a last bite of her daily meal and sat up straight, taking a close look at her former fellow worker.   
His eyes were sunken and his face had turned a pale color that didn't match his original tanned skin color. His long, dark hair was disheveled and greasy, and his old military uniform looked too worn for safety. It was completely frayed. Not much different from Zelina's one, to be honest.

In his hand, Andrade was holding a crumpled piece that he had been holding on since the day before. His knuckles were turning white and he stared at the floor, his face clearly showing that he was not controlling his anger as well as he wanted.

The thing is, Zelina knew he was bound to explode and make too much noise might she even try to ask what was wrong. So she said nothing. Just like she'd been doing for weeks.

"We shouldn't have left those two girls behind."

Andrade was still staring at the floor, but his face was… unreadable. Zelina could've said it was guilt, or sadness, or maybe he was just thinking really, REALLY hard. But she had no idea what was going through his racing mind and that, surprisingly, was new. But she was not going to have any of that. 

Truly, she was no heartless monster. She had friends and loved ones that she had no news about since the whole "infected world" happened and, even if she didn't want to, it took a toll on her. But they couldn't be everybody's guardian angels. They couldn't stop to take care of every person they found on their way. It kinda shocked them at first but they learned it the hard way. 

Zelina stood up and and stayed in front of Andrade, kicking his boots to get his attention.

"We wouldn't have been able to save them. We didn't even know them. Who says they haven't found each other yet?", said Zelina, trying to keep a hopeful tone in her voice.

"The hideout was recently used when we found it, the note was just written: I even got some ink on my fingers from when I picked it up.", replied Andrade, bored. Like he was sick of saying or thinking the same thing. 

Well, there goes hope.

"You know they're already dead. That place was, like, an infected convention".

"But we at least could've searched the area", Andrade mumbled.

"And get killed ourselves? Is that what you wanted?", Zelina protested. She let out a sigh. "Look, Andrade, it pains me to say it, too, but there is nothing we can do now. They either will find each other or die trying and honestly, I don't really care! We just can't care about that anymore."

Andrade looked at her for the first time that evening, his eyes cold and unimpressed. He rolled them and whispered, "now why does that not surprise me…?"

Zelina pointed at him, getting close to his face. "What the fuck do you mean by that?", she hissed.

Andrade stood up and pushed Zelina out of his way. He picked up her backpack and got some dirty bandages, throwing them at Zelina. "We couldn't care about the children you stole this from?!" He then picked up some ration bars, probably the last ones they had. "We got this from some sleeping guy who was just resting, just like us right now!", Andrade raised his voice. "We stole his ENTIRE backpack, the only thing he had! Do we care about that?!"

Zelina froze. "Andrade, you need to keep it down…"

"You don't get to tell me what to do!"

"Andy, STOP!"

The wooden floor under their feet creaked and they both stopped in their tracks. Rattling sounds took over the room.

Andrade and Zelina stood completely still, not even daring to take a breath. Downstairs, someone groaned. 

No, something groaned.

Quietly, they crouched behind the closest table they had around them. Zelina signed her partner to take what he could from the room. Andrade sighed and began picking up what he spilled.

Meanwhile, Zelina took her baseball bat. It was dirty with guts and dirt clinging to the metal spikes she added to the barrel but as still effective as when she found it. She tightened her grip around the handle, inhaled, and began marching to the closed door on the other side of the room.

The rattling sounds and groaning started sounding closer and closer as the seconds passed. The stairs behind the door creaked again. A pained sound entered the room and with it, a putrid smell. They knew what was coming, as they'd done so many times before.

They took a deep breath, counted to three and opened the door.

Zelina swung her bat to the dead creature as Andrade drew his knife and waited. The barrel hit the zombie's head full force, turning the left side of it a stinky mush of brain matter and dark blood that exploded to the sides. Zelina closed her eyes just after hitting it but still felt the crimson liquid sticking to her face. Andrade rushed forward and kicked the creature down the stairs, the sound of bones breaking being the only thing that could be heard other than Andrade's panting. 

The room got silent again after a few seconds. That is, until Zelina started screaming.

"Holy SHIT, that was so fucking gross! Uuuuugggghhhh…", she squirmed, getting away from the door. "I think I might be getting too strong…"

Andrade shushed her as soon as she spoke. "Quiet! There might be another one around here."

Zelina frowned and turned to him, offering him the towel she used to clean her face. Her partner, seeing it as gross as it was, declined and peered out the window next to the door again. "I thought we cleared out this place before coming upstairs?", she asked.

Now it was Andrade's turn to frown. "Yeah, we did, but…"  
There was no one outside the house they were in. Not even one infected around. "We closed every door and window when we came in, didn't we?"

"We did. Maybe we didn't check well enough?"

Andrade shook his head. The house didn't have many rooms and they did check every one of them thoroughly. He looked outside the window: the sun was about to set. The sky was painted in strong orange and purple, with some storm clouds in the horizon. Once the sun set, it would be more dangerous for them to make sure everything was alright downstairs. And if it started raining…

"I'm going downstairs, take a quick look around the house, make double sure everything is closed", he whispered to Zelina as he stood up from where he was sitting by the window. "If I'm not back in 15 minutes, get ready to leave", he said while pointing at Zelina's wrist watch. He rushed down the stairs with his knife ready in his right hand.

Thing is Zelina knew, with total certainty, that everything was clear. She closed every single door and every single window there was. She shut down all lights. She searched in every cabin, under every bed. The place was picked clean even before they found it. Any infected that might have escaped their attention before would've found them before they went upstairs and they would've dealt with it, but they didn't found any.

To be fair, they hadn't seen any infected for two days. The whole neighbourhood was completely deserted. Raiders had taken care of everything before they even got there.

So how the hell did a zombie get inside?

Zelina pursed her lips in deep thought. Infected creatures didn't know how to open closed doors, so a locked door would've been impossible for them. If someone alive would've tried to open the locked door, they would've made some noise and Zelina would've heard them. Unless, of course… Zelina herself was the one making enough noise in the first place so they could've picked the lock and don't get caught. 

Someone was going upstairs, so she picked up her bat again and stood up from where she was sitting. She took a quick look at her watch: not even five minutes had passed. 

"Put your hands up", a feminine voice said from the door.

Zelina watched her carefully go inside the room, pointing a gun at her. In the dim light of the setting sun, her trembling hands could have gone unnoticed for anyone else, but not for Zelina. She was, to put it mildly, in a rough shape. Her forehead was full of dripping blood from a recently open wound, her clothes were filthy and her face was as pale as Andrade's. Her dark hair was a in a messy ponytail and her leg was clearly injured by the way it looked: unnaturally shaped and bloody. Her eyes were bloodshot as she was frantically looking for anything suspicious in the room. 

Zelina put her hands up and dropped the baseball bat, making enough noise so Andrade could sense something was wrong. The unknown woman didn't take it well. 

"Don't make any sudden moves, I'm not afraid of shooting", she claimed. Zelina just nodded slowly and began to walk away from the weapon.

The brunette took a step forward towards Andrade's backpack, hissing when limping because of her broken leg. Zelina noticed she didn't close the door. Mistake number 1, she thought. Either she was too far gone because of her injuries or she had no idea on how to raid somebody's properties. Zelina internally winced at her thoughts. Are you feeling proud at the fact that you do know how to mug somebody?

The woman looked inside the backpack and took the dirty bandages and a half-empty bottle of rum. Mistake number two: you have nowhere to keep that but your hands, and your hands must stay empty all the time.

And just to top it all, she stopped pointing the gun at her and left it in the ground for a second. Mistake number three… not even worth remarking.

Zelina run to her baseball bat before the weak woman could even notice her moving. By the time she dropped everything and went back to pointing the gun at her, it was too late. Zelina kicked it from her hands and pushed her back to the ground with her boot. The woman started panting and her eyes misted when she saw the baseball bat pointing at her. Zelina pushed the end cap to the woman's forehead, and she winced. Up close, she was even in a worse shape than Zelina thought.

"That was a nice try, but did you even know what you were doing?", Zelina asked with a smirk. Seeing that woman on the verge of crying, though… It took all the fun in it.

The brunette gulped. "I-I-I was j-just trying to defend myself, p-p-please have mercy", she pleaded. Zelina immediately noticed her Australian accent and her eyes flew open.

"What are you doing here? How did you get in?"

"I was… hiding…", she gulped again, "in the basement. I've been there for days!"

"You…", said another voice coming from the door. Zelina turned around to see her partner, eyes wide and mouth open, even paler than he was before. He dropped his knife in surprise.

"She tried to steal from us, Andrade", Zelina informed, keeping her eyes on the brunette now. "She was hiding in the basement."

Andrade got closer to the woman and whispered, barely audible: 

"You're the girl we've been looking for."


	2. Coin

The logs in the improvised campfire crackled in the darkness. The sun had long disappeared from the sky, leaving in its place the weak moonlight that entered through the broken window. The soft glow of the fire and the muffled sound of light rain embraced them in a tranquil atmosphere they enjoyed. 

It was almost soothing, after all the events of the evening.

(Andrade ordered Zelina to let go of the injured woman so they could question her.

“She pointed a gun at me and was about to steal the only alcohol we have left!”, Zelina protested.

“You are seriously dumb if you thought she could do anything in her state”, Andrade simply countered.

Zelina was the one offering her rum by the time she finished explaining herself.)

“So, Peyton”, Andrade began. “Your wife has been missing for, like, a long time, and you decided to throw caution to the wind and went looking for her,”, he continued as he applied the bandages to her head. Peyton nodded softly. She then took a quick glance at the window. “Why? You could’ve waited at your settlement. Or sent someone to look for her instead.”

“Don't you think I tried?”, Peyton exclaimed. "My people sent a search party to look for her and others, but none of them came back. It was so strange, so I needed to see what was wrong by myself", she sighed and lowered her head. 

"That was fucking dumb of you", Zelina added. 

"Language, darling", Andrade replied mockingly.

Peyton glared at them both before sighing again. She took the folded paper that was laying next to her and run her thumb over the wrinkled sides. "I can't believe this is what I have left of her", she mumbled.

Andrade gave her the note he found, with a picture of Billie and her that was inside of it, a few hours ago. She stood in place, frozen, looking at the photo like it had grown two heads, before blinking once and falling on her knees again. Andrade caught her before she hurt herself, but couldn't stop her crying. 

Zelina, however, kept her at arm's length, looking askance. Wordlessly she turned and started working on the campfire, while Andrade was left to take care of Peyton.

Andrade tried his best to put a smile on his face before saying, "You know, the note wasn’t written that long before we found it."

"And when was that?", asked Peyton, not looking up from the ground.

Andrade opened his mouth a bit, raising his index finger to the air and then grimaced. "About two days ago, I think." He shot a quick look at Zelina, who only nodded silently. She knew what the girl before them was thinking.

The brunette snapped her head towards Andrade, eyes going wide. Then she took the note again and inspected it. Her lips formed a hesitant smile and her eyes looked glassy. By the way, she was scanning the note over and over again like she was trying to bring the words to life just by reading them, Zelina knew she was feeling hopeful. She almost felt that way, too.

Then she remembered.

That place was packed with infected creatures. 

All of a sudden, she couldn't look at Peyton anymore.

"Andrade, a word?", asked Zelina.

Her partner must've noticed, the dread radiating off her, the way her voice almost cracked. He stood up from where he was sitting beside Peyton and followed her to the far side of the room.

"Are you okay?"

"Andrade, you haven't told her about the room", whispered Zelina.

"What room?", asked her friend.

"The one we found the note in. Have you already forgotten what was there?"

"We took care of them."

"That's not the fucking problem!", hissed Zelina. She brought her hand to her forehead and closed her eyes, trying to stay as calm as possible. She could feel Peyton's eyes on her, burning the back of her neck.

That sure wasn't helping.

"Andrade", started Zelina, keeping her eyes closed. "You know that girl's wife can't be alive. You saw that place. It was infested with zombies."

Andrade turned to Peyton and shook his head. "I know, but we did take care of them. We didn't see anyone recently infected, either." 

“But it’s been days!”

“But what’s the alternative here, Zelina?” asked Andrade. “We’ve already patched her up! Are you suggesting we leave her outside, after this?” He then lowered his voice, getting closer to Zelina. “She knows where we are and who we are. She could kill us the second we turn our backs on her.”

Zelina was staring at the ceiling, deep in thought, when Peyton’s voice snapped her out of her brain. “I’ve heard every word you’ve been saying, you know.”

Andrade turned toward her, his eyes wide. Right, this room isn’t big enough. Of course, she heard us.

Peyton stood up carefully, slowly enough so as not to hurt herself any more than she already was. Her gaze fell on Andrade’s backpack. 

Before Zelina could intervene to prevent her from taking their backpack and running out the door. Something Zelina had been expecting her to do since they had freed her that evening, Peyton spoke.

“I’m offering you a deal.” 

Both Andrade and Zelina froze at the unexpected calmness of her voice.

Didn’t she just hear us talking about leaving her?, the dark-haired girl thought. 

“I’m part of a group, located east from here”, Peyton started. “We have the north-eastern part of the city controlled and secured. We have supplies, vehicles… We’ve been even growing our own food.”

Andrade turned his full attention towards the brunette. “And?”

“If you guys go with me to where Billie was last seen… Where you found the note, I will take you to my people. Then you can get as much food, water, or whatever else you need.”

“And if we refuse?”, interjected Zelina, taking a step closer to her. 

If Peyton was frightened she didn’t let it show. She stared down at Zelina for three seconds and then turned her gaze towards her friend. Zelina followed her eyes. 

“You’re not thinking about it, are you?”, Zelina demanded of Andrade before turning to Peyton again. 

Andrade just sighed, defeated. “Again, what’s the alternative here, Zelina?”

“Fucking refusing, what do you think? It’s obvious that it’s a trap.”

“But what if it’s not?”, snapped back her partner. “We need supplies. We wasted all we had on her”, he pointed to Peyton. “The hospital is on the way. We go east and if we don’t find her, well”, he shrugged, “we at least tried.” 

Andrade softly pushed Zelina out of the way and walked to his backpack, grabbed it, and then moved to sit by the fire again. He started checking whatever few things they had, offering more rum to Peyton -- which she politely declined. Then he stood up once more, reaching out to the australian girl.

He shook her hand firmly.

“We have a deal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hahaaaaa take THAT, depression! I wrote the second chapter! I can't believe it!!!
> 
> Anyways, all you've read (or not read, who knows, not me) is edited by the fantastic, amazing, superhero of the hour AttackPlatypus! He's the fucking best, I'll tell you that. The best hermanoooo. You should read Directive 51, a story he's writing with the equally awesome LiteratureLocker. This story is inspired on their story (bc they are my heroes). Here you have it: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18515749/chapters/43881649
> 
> hope you enjoyed the chapter! I sure as hell enjoyed listening to TLOU's original soundtrack for 3h in a loop.

**Author's Note:**

> If you've made it this far, thank you. Don't forget to leave kudos if you liked it, or write a comment, or give me some ideas or suggestions. This work is yours as much as mine.


End file.
